A HORSERIDER is trying to raise enough money to go a trek of a lifetime on a unique horse - and help charity.

Sara Helsby, of Newlands Close, Frodsham, is organising a table top sale, going on a sponsored weight loss and is even auctioning a new bathroom suite so she can go on an Icelandic horse trek.

She needs £3,000 to go on the week-long trek in June, on a breed of horse which has a unique riding gait, in aid of the Spinal Injuries Association (SIA).

To help her on her way Gibson's Mill shop in Kingsley has given Sara jodhpurs, riding boots, two pairs of gloves and a boot bag.

Neptune Suppliers Ltd in Blakemere has donated a Vitra Rialto bathroom suite in apple white, worth about £900, for her to offer as a raffle prize at Kingsley Carnival on May 22. Sara will be selling £1 raffle tickets at the carnival and at a table-top sale on Saturdayat Frodsham Parish Church Hall, Church Street, Frodsham, from 9.30am-12.30pm.

She is also selling pin badges with an SIA design of a sunflower on them.

'I still have quite a bit to raise but it's slow but sure,' she said.

Sara added that people had been 'exceptionally kind' during her attempts to raise money.

'Blossom Hill riding school have kindly said I can go down there and use their menage so I can ride my horse while the weather is so bad. I have to get my hours up because in Iceland they are expecting it to be five to six hours a day.'

Sara has set herself a target of losing almost two stone by the beginning of June and she said she had already lost half a stone.

'I'm determined to get there,' she said. 'I'm counting calories and I'm going down to the doctors' surgery every couple of weeks and the nurse is weighing me.'

Jon McInnes, managing director of Neptune Suppliers, said: 'I have suffered a spinal injury myself. I was in a road accident which burst a disc in my back. I had an operation in 1998 and I walked out of hospital after three days. I didn't need the help of a charity but some people are more severely injured than others. I think I was one of the lucky ones.' For more information about the SIA or to sponsor Sara contact Olwen Sisupalan on 0208 442 2175. There are also collecting tins in Gibson's.

To buy a table top at the sale on Saturday, contact Sara on 01928 735262.